Operation Big Ben - WW2

Another offer from the Naval & Military Press, probably the world's premier military-book retailer. The blurb reads:

OPERATION BIG BEN
The Anti-V2 Spitfire Missions 1944-45

Published price £14.99 this weekend only £2.95

Best known for being the first presenter of Tomorrow's World Raymond Baxter had a active RAF career as a Spitfire Pilot.

Flying with No. 602 Squadron RAF in September 1944. On 18 March 1945, he took part in a daring daylight raid on the Shell-Mex building in The Hague, which was the HQ for V1 and V2 attacks. The commander, Max Sutherland, received a bar to his DFC and the other four pilots, including Baxter, were mentioned in dispatches.

In an interview he described flying over a V-2 rocket site during a launch, and his wingman firing on the missile: "I dread to think what would have happened if he'd hit the thing!"

This highly significant book draws attention to one of the best kept secrets of the Second World War. Through Squadron histories, log books, official reports and interviews with the people who flew clipped winged Spitfires to dive-bomb V2 rocket sites towards the end of World War 2, a story as fascinating as the Dam Busters Raid or the Battle of Britain is at last fully told. The authors explain the difficulties of the missions, utilising the firsthand recollections of the men who completed the dive-bombing raids. They show the extreme dangers and complexities of dive-bombing as well as how to dive-bomb, all of which is supported by lists of the Spitfires that flew with the squadrons and V1 and V2 target statistics. This book is an essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War.

Craig Cabell and Graham A. Thomas Forward by Raymond Baxter
SB 206 pp Illustrated

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Published price £14.99 this weekend only £2.95